Leisure eating practices and plate waste in China: the consumer perspective

ABSTRACT

In China, food waste at the consumption stage is at its highest when eating out. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the organisation of social, cultural, and material practices associated with eating-out in China, which result in food waste. By challenging the prevalent structure/agency dualism in traditional food waste studies, this research draws on Warde’s conceptual framework of eating as a compound practice to offer a nuanced understanding of food waste. It provides a novel contribution to understanding how food waste might be reduced. A combination of semi-structured interviews and eat-along sessions were adopted in this study. 28 Chinese participants joined the research over a four-month period in 2017 in two Chinese cities. 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken alongside 16 eat-along sessions. Qualitative data were interpreted using Thematic Analysis. The findings suggest that eating-out food practices can be understood through the following integrative practices: social organisation of meal occasions, judgement of aesthetic qualities, judgement of bodily capacity, and judgement of food functionality. Amongst these four practices, plate waste was attributed to the judgement of surplus foods’ edibility and waste avoidance, which were explored through the three dimensions of eating-out food practice: temporality, materiality, and conventionality.

KEYWORDS:

• Plate waste
• qualitative research
• social practice
• cultural convention
• food consumption

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.